Police officers are often trained to use the Behavior Analysis Interview (BAI) to detect deceit, but it is based on faulty indicators of lying. The BAI may be especially problematic for juveniles due to behavioral, cognitive, and socioemotional immaturities. This study compares strategies used by juveniles, young adults, and adults to appear innocent during a BAI concerning a hypothetical crime. Results show that juveniles may not differentiate between the truthful and deceptive responses that police officers are trained to observe for as well as adults do, which could lead to officers misjudging juveniles as deceitful/guilty

Bettens, Talley

Warren, Amye

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University of Tennessee at Chattanooga UTC Scholar ReSEARCH Dialogues Conference Proceedings ReSEARCH Dialogues Conference Proceedings 2021 Apr 12th, 10:00 AM - 10:00 AM How Juveniles and Adults Use Strategies to Appear Innocent in a Police Interview Talley Bettens University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Amye Warren University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Follow this and additional works at: https://scholar.utc.edu/research-dialogues Recommended Citation Bettens, Talley and Warren, Amye, "How Juveniles and Adults Use Strategies to Appear Innocent in a Police Interview". ReSEARCH Dialogues Conference proceedings. https://scholar.utc.edu/research-dialogues/2021/posters/5. This posters is brought to you for free and open access by the Conferences and Events at UTC Scholar. It has been accepted for inclusion in ReSEARCH Dialogues Conference Proceedings by an authorized administrator of UTC Scholar. For more information, please contact scholar@utc.edu. AbstractHow Juveniles and Adults Use Strategies to Appear Innocent in a Police InterviewTalley Bettens, Stephanie George, Akera Williams, Julianna Schau, Andrew Barczak, Andrea Martinez, Amye WarrenUniversity of Tennessee at ChattanoogaPolice officers are often trained to use the Behavior Analysis Interview (BAI) to detect deceit, but it is based on faulty indicators of lying. The BAI may be especially problematic for juveniles due to behavioral, cognitive, and socioemotional immaturities. This study compares strategies used by juveniles, young adults, and adults to appear innocent during a BAI concerning a hypothetical crime. Results show that juveniles may not differentiate between the truthful and deceptive responses that police officers are trained to observe for as well as adults do, which could lead to officers misjudging juveniles as deceitful/guilty.● The Reid Technique is the most widely implemented interrogation training for law enforcement in the U.S. (Buckley & Williamson, 2006). ● It begins with a non-accusatory phase including a Behavior Analysis Interview (BAI):○ 15 questions designed to evoke specific verbal/nonverbal behavioral responses said to indicate lie- or truth-telling (Inbau et al., 2013). ○ Designed as a screening tool for police interviewers to distinguish between innocent and guilty suspects. ○ However, the nonverbal cues to deception/guilt used in the BAI are only weakly correlated with actual deception in adults (DePaulo et al., 2003). ○ Empirical research shows little support for the validity of the BAI, suggesting guilty suspects can manipulate their behavior to appear truthful (e.g., Masip & Herrero, 2012).● No research to date has directly examined juveniles’ strategies and behaviors during a BAI.○ Juveniles display some of the BAI nonverbal deception indicators more often than adults regardless of guilt (Meyer & Reppucci, 2007). ○ Despite acknowledging developmental differences, officers report using the same interview techniques, including Reid, with juveniles and adults (Meyer & Reppucci, 2007; Reppucci et al., 2010). ● The present study compared juveniles’ and adults’ deceptive and truthful responses to a hypothetical BAI.  ParticipantsMaterials & ProcedureReferencesIntroductionDiscussionBAI Response-Type:● Significant main effect of response type, F (1, 214) =144.45, p<.001:○ More willing to engage in truthful than deceptive responses across all 15 BAI questions. See Figure 1. ● Significant main effect of age, F (1, 214) =5.36, p<.001:○ Juveniles significantly more willing to engage in both truthful and deceptive responses. ● The response type x age interaction was not significant, F(2, 214) = 4.26, p=.57: ○ Although not significant, juveniles had higher ratings of willingness to engage in deceitful and truthful responses across all 15 BAI questions. See Figure 2.● Regardless of age or guilt condition, participants were more willing to engage in truthful than deceptive responses.○ Suggests that the BAI’s indicators of deceit and truth are common-sense and suspects may therefore be able to manipulate their behaviors to appear truthful (Masip et al., 2012; Masip et al., 2011). ● Juveniles were overall more willing to engage in both truthful and deceitful BAI responses compared to adults. ○ If juveniles and young adults are less selective in their displays of behaviors said to indicate deceit, they could be at an increased risk of being mistakenly judged as guilty compared to adults. ● Consistent with previous research, guilty participants reported that they would use strategies to appear innocent to a greater extent than innocent participants (e.g., Hartwig et al., 2007). ○ Suggests that innocent suspects believe that their innocence will be obvious to an officer (Kassin, 2005) and they need only to act naturally. ● Juveniles reported using strategies to appear innocent to a greater extent than adults and young adults. ○ However, their intentions did not show innocence on the BAI, as they were more willing to engage in deceptive behaviors compared to the older age groups. ○ Demonstrates a disconnect in how juveniles intend to use strategies to appear innocent versus the likelihood that they would convey innocence to a police officer. ○ Could be due to their beliefs of how liars stereotypically behave; Juveniles may be less aware of stereotypical behaviors associated with deceit and, consequently, more willing to engage in these and similar deceitful behaviors in the potential responses to the BAI. Strategies to Appear Innocent:● Guilty participants said they would be significantly more willing to use the strategies to appear innocent, F(1, 214) = 12.02, p<.01.● Compared to adults, juveniles said they would be significantly more willing to use the strategies to appear innocent, F (2, 214) = 3.30, p<.01Data was collected from three age groups: Juveniles: Young Adults: Adults:● Age: 12-16 (M=13.84)● Gender: 53.3% female● Race: 86.7% white● Age: 18-25 (M=20.33)● Gender: 93.7% female● Race: 70.5% white● Age: 28-49 (M=40.33)● Gender: 58.5% female● Race: 66.3% white● Read fictional theft scenario and randomly assigned to imagined guilty or innocent conditions. ● Presented with the 15 BAI questions, with each followed by all possible truthful and deceptive, verbal and nonverbal responses from the Reid manual ○ Rated willingness to give each response on a 1 (‘I definitely would not’) to 6 (‘I definitely would’) scale. ● Rated likelihood of using strategies to convince an officer of their innocence (Masip & Herrero, 2012). ● Responded to 10 questions on behaviors stereotypically exhibited by liars (Global Deception Research Team, 2006). ● Completed 20-items from the Attitudes Towards Police Legitimacy Scale (Reynolds et al., 2018).ResultsMethodLying Behaviors Stereotypes:● Significant main effect of age, F (2, 217) = 3.21, p=.04:○ Adult’s perceptions of cues to deception were significantly more congruent with stereotypes compared to juveniles. See Figure 3. Buckley, J. P., & Williamson, T. (2006). The Reid Technique of interviewing and interrogation. Willan Publishing, Devon.Cleary, H. M. D. (2017). Applying the lessons of developmental psychology to the study of juvenile interrogations: New directions for research, policy, and practice. Psychology, Public Policy, and Law, 23(1), 118-130. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/law0000120DePaulo, D. M., Lindsay, J. J., Malone, B. E., Muhlenbruck, L., Charlton, K., & Cooper, H. (2003). Cues to deception. Psychological Bulletin, 129(1), 74-118.Hartwig, M., Granhag, P.A., & Strömwall, L.A. (2007). Guilty and innocent suspects’ strategies during police interrogations. Psychology, Crime & Law, 13(2), 213-227. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10683160600750264Horvath, F., Blair, J.P., & Buckley, J.P. (2008). The behavioral analysis interview: Clarifying the practice, theory and understanding of its use and effectiveness. International Journal of Police Science and Management, 10(1).Inbau, F. E., Reid, J. E., Buckley, J. P., & Jayne, B. C. (2013). Criminal interrogations and confessions (5 ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.Kassin, S. M. (2005). On the psychology of confessions: Does innocence put innocents at risk? American Psychologist, 60(3), 215-228. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.3.215Masip, J., Barba, A., & Herrero, C. (2012). Behaviour analysis interview and common sense: A study with novice and experienced officers. Psychiatry, Psychology and Law, 19(1), 21-34. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13218719.2010.543402Masip, J., & Herrero, C. (2012). What would you say if you were guilty?' Suspects' strategies during a hypothetical behavior analysis interview concerning a serious crime. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 27(1), 60-70. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acp.2872Masip, J., Herrero, C., Garrido, E., & Barba, A. (2011). Is the behaviour analysis interview just common sense? Applied Cognitive Psychology, 25(4), 593-604. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/acp.1728Meyer, J. R. M., & Reppucci, N. D. (2007). Police practices and perceptions regarding juvenile interrogation and interrogative suggestibility. Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 25(6), 757-780. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/bsl.774Reppucci, N. D., Meyer, J., Kostelnik, J., Lassiter, G. D., & Meissner, C. A. (2010). Custodial interrogation of juveniles: Results of a national survey of police. Police interrogations and false confessions: Current research, practice, and policy recommendations (pp. 67-80, Chapter xviii, 250 Pages). American Psychological Association, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/12085-004Reynolds, J. J., Estrada-Reynolds, V., & Nunez, N. (2018). Development and validation of the attitudes towards police legitimacy scale. Law and Human Behavior, 42(2), 119-134. https://doi.org/http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000281The Global Deception Research, T. (2006). A world of lies. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 37(1), 60-74.

How Juveniles and Adults Use Strategies to Appear Innocent in a Police Interview

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How Juveniles and Adults Use Strategies to Appear Innocent in a Police Interview

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